‘It’s quite moving when you see it’
A visit to the memorial site in Digby County that remembers the victims of the 1946 sinking of the Robert G. Cann steamer
Growing up they had always heard the stories about the marine disaster that had claimed 12 lives.
But it wasn’t until four of them made the recent trip to a Digby County memorial site that they felt a part of the story themselves.
Siblings Betty Jean Peters-Meuse, Kathy Melenchuk, Andrea Crosby and Emery F. Peters ventured out to the memorial site, created in remembrance of the victims of the sinking of the Robert G. Cann.
Emery Peters’ namesake is Captain Emery F. Peters – one of the captains of the vessel and a victim of the sinking.
On Feb. 16, 1946, the SS Robert G. Cann sank off Grand Manan Island, on its way back to Nova Scotia from New Brunswick. At about 4 a.m. in brutal winter conditions, and with the ship taking on water, the 13 people onboard piled into a 17-foot lifeboat that eventually reached the shores of Nova Scotia some 18 hours later.
By the time the lifeboat beached at the isolated Riley’s Cove in Digby County, 11 people on the lifeboat were dead, having died from exposure. Another person was near death and later died before getting to the hospital.
Captain Arthur Ells of Port Greville, N.S was the sole survivor. After being on the lifeboat – rowing heavy, clumsy, ice-coated oars, while stopping to pray over the others as one by one they died – he walked nearly two kilometres in search of help after the lifeboat came ashore.
The majority of the 12 people who died were from Yarmouth County.
With so many deaths the impact was widespread.
“We had always heard the stories and I had read a couple of stories of interviews with Captain Ells, so we all knew about it,” Peters says. “It was quite a disaster in its day, although even today it would still be a huge disaster.”
It was June 1946 when Carl Dimock of Lake Midway, Digby Neck, erected a cross and plaque in memory of those who died when the ill-fated steamer met its tragic demise. During the past 73 years the memorial fell in disrepair. Many forgot about its existence.
This past summer others stepped forward to bring the memorial back to life, placing a refurbished cross at the site and a new memorial with the names of those who perished. The idea to replace the cross and plaque at Riley’s Cove came from Manning “Chip” Gasch, a seasonal resident of Trout Cove. Yarmouth County resident Jerry Titus helped him with the research and the refurbishment project. In July a group ventured to the site, erecting the new cross and placing the new memorial.
The Tri-County Vanguard wrote about the refurbishment in its Oct. 16 Then and Now issue.
“We saw that article about the monument being put up and we thought that was really a neat idea. None of us had ever been there,” says Andrea Crosby. “One of my older sisters Betty Jean that was with us, she had been there with mom years and year ago but couldn’t find it.”
Curiosity about history runs in the family of the siblings who made the trek to the Digby County site. Their mother Kathleen ‘Kit’ Lockhart was a well-known historian in Yarmouth who decades ago used to write historical columns that were published in the Vanguard.
There are nine siblings and originally the intention was for everyone to visit the memorial site together, however, not everyone could make the trip, which was planned on relatively short notice. There may be another trip in the spring.
Crosby is thankful the first trip occurred when it did as she was eager to visit the site. A few days later she broke her leg and wouldn’t have been able to go.
The site is not easily accessible and not easy to find. It is about 1.5 kilometers through the woods from Highway 217 at Lake Midway. They were able to drive through a narrow old road for most of the way but had to walk the remaining 500 metres or so.
It was worth the effort, Crosby says, as it transcended them back in time by 73 years.
“At the time there was no road there and the one survivor who was the second captain, he had to walk almost two kilometres back up to the road to find help,” she says. “We stopped right there on the shore and had our dinner. Now we know what happened to Grampy Peters. You could just sit there eating your dinner thinking back to that time and thinking this is where the lifeboat was going to come ashore.”
Emery Peters was equally touched. “It’s quite simple and it’s quite moving when you see it. You realize this is the spot where that lifeboat came ashore. It’s sad but at the same time brings the story back to life for us because this is where the story ended,” he says. “It’s a very touching thing to see that people cared enough to put up a memorial.”
Peters says if more of their family members go back in the spring to visit the site they may even do a beach cleanup to give their visit further purpose.
But on this first visit the purpose was to remember, to acknowledge and to see.
“You get there and you think about what these people went through, one by one dying on their way to shore,” he says. “It’s a very touching thing. It’s a familyrelated thing and my namesake. It was always a part of our family history.”